May 2012

City Files: Cleveland

Jennifer N. Dienst

More to explore with $2 billion in new developments

This past winter, Cleveland began rolling out the first of a long line of new project openings, renovations, and expansions that will touch every part of the Cleveland meeting experience. In December, the Kalahari Indoor Waterpark Resort in Sandusky debuted a $22-million expansion that doubled the size of its convention center to 215,000 square feet, and this spring the first phase of the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland will open in the historic Higbee Building on Public Square.

Perhaps the most anticipated project in the works is the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center, due to open in August of 2013. The medical mart will include permanent showrooms for medical manufacturers and service providers, and the convention center, which will be available to groups from any industry, will offer 226,000 square feet of exhibition space.

Cleveland’s attractions and event spaces are growing both in sheer numbers and in square footage. The new, 70,000-square-foot Greater Cleveland Aquarium opened in January, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) will move into a new, 34,000-square-foot, four-story home this fall. The International Exposition Center, with more than one million square feet of contiguous exhibition and conference space, will invest up to $35 million for upgrades during the next few years.